Walk on Water (Eytan Fox, 2004)

The Israeli film Walk on Water (Eytan Fox, 2004) deals with far too many immensely important issues to successfully make a meaningful statement on those issues. Among the issues addressed in the film are: World War II and the Holocaust as well as their implications today in Israel and Germany, conflicts in the Middle East, religious battles, terrorism, homosexuality, and I would even add that how the US plays into all of these is important as well. Clearly, how each one of these issues works in this film deserves its own lengthy essay, so I will necessarily be far too brief.

The film's main focus seems to be equally oriented around the relationship between Germans and Israeli's post WWII, and the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians including between organizations that represent them.

As far as the WWII aspect goes, the film is quite neutral. Well, at least politically correct(ish). Nazis are bad, and today's Germans and Israelis are good. We identify with both our protagonists, the Israeli/German Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) of Jewish decent (although there is a streak of evil deeds, we sympathize with him), as well as the German Axel (Knut Berger). The film shows us that there is a deep internal struggle within the lives of both of these people and their families and neighbors.

The approach to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a bit more troublesome. Although Eyal is seen a bit as an extreme case, and Rafik (Yousef 'Joe' Sweid) as an alright guy, this film is clearly from the Israeli perspective. There is no understanding of why the people from the other side of the fence believe the things they do, and the film openly admits that. Yet I still get a sense of underlying hatred.

The homosexuality seems to be rather out of place, as if this film was not attempting to tackle enough important issues and had to pick up another. It just does not seem to work. The end is rather out of the blue. There is hardly any attraction throughout the film between Pia and Eyal, but him and Axel get very close. In addition, the scene in which Eyal beats up the German's who are harassing Axel's friends seems to be purely for the purpose of a fight scene. Maybe it shows Eyal can show compassion toward people he does think he likes.

Lastly, the repetition of Buffalo Springfield's song, "For What It's Worth" is a bit interesting. There is a cover version that is played twice, and the original is also heard. It is a song identified with the Vietnam War, and seems to be introducing the US into the already complex plot.

Not that I agree or disagree with the way Walk on Water portrays this situation, but I do believe that in order to watch a film like this, watching a film from the other perspective such as Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad, 2005) is important.
That being said, I think it makes a decent effort to confront these issues, and is worth seeing.